This may have been posted before (the article is six weeks old), but I don't recall seeing it. If you read the comments, someone grabbed a screen-shot of the "Iridium" moment for comparison. Anyone else notice this? (I haven't seen The Avengers yet, so can't speak to it, but thought it was cool if true).

I do know there's at least one Buffy easter egg. Shawarma. Pretty much taken directly from the anecdote about how Nick Brendon got the part of Xander. As told by Joss in the BtVS box set bonus disc retrospective roundtable.

I remember seeing a link to the same page or a similar one about this Easter egg...and the shot does look rather similar to the shot of Serenity sitting derelict in the ship lot during Out of Gas, due to her engines being folded down for space or maintenance purposes.

Just wish I remembered the link, though I know someone posted it at Fireflyfans.net as part of a thread about this topic...

Yes, it does. I remember this, and I looked on my second & third showing. It shows up when he holds up the pad. The rock is turning, and at one point it looks like Serenity. It's pretty quick, but it certainly looks like it. It'll be easier to see when we get the DVD and can pause :)

The Buffy roundtable bonus disc was recorded well after the show ended. There, Joss brought up the Shawarma anecdote (where, by the description, it sounded extremely similar to Iron Man's line in the movie) enthusiastically, without being prompted. If you have the box set, check out the bonus disc. It's no coincidence, I assure you.

I watched for it specifically the second time, I think it's a case of wishful thinking.

Simon | June 10, 22:27 CET

Probably a little bit of both, I imagine...the shot of the Iridium looking like Serenity is only a small number of frames of the animation and you have to be looking at it carefully. Same for the pots and pans in Dr. Horrible's kitchen looking like our favourite cargo vessel...just gotta have the mind on the right wavelength ;)

Putting the "Serenity" in The Avengers doesn't seem like a very Joss thing to do - but it's conceivable that someone in production did it. I'm inclined to think it's the Wishful Mirage Scenario, myself...

How is that a little bit of both? That's actually exactly "wishful thinking", just like the pots were.

The One True b!X | June 10, 23:31 CET

Maybe it's a differing view on the idea of "wishful thinking", b!X but I would classify the term as meaning something having a specific intention or appearance when the odds of such a thing being true are very small.

So, two productions where Joss Whedon is involved in a major role having props or imagery used that seemingly refer to an important person/place/thing from a 3rd Whedon property (i.e. Dr. Horrible's pots & pans or the iridium sample looking like Serenity)? I am willing to have at least some middling level of belief that the designs were intentional by the set designers or prop makers. Something completely oxymoronic like Disney animators making a dust cloud during an animal stampede in The Lion King spell out "SEX"? Takes a lot more work to sell me on the concept, even if turns out to be true :D

Putting the "Serenity" in The Avengers doesn't seem like a very Joss thing to do - but it's conceivable that someone in production did it. I'm inclined to think it's the Wishful Mirage Scenario, myself...

QuoterGal | June 10, 23:41 CET

No, it doesn't seem like him, does it? I know I remember that he was shooting to avoid any Easter eggs or wink-nudge references to other sci-fi works in Serenity but the design crew still threw in Forbidden Planet with the Alliance exploration vessel that the crew find Dr. Caron's message within having the designator "C57D" (which is the ID of the ship Leslie Nielsen and co. arrive on Altair IV aboard).

BlueEyedBrigadier: So, two productions where Joss Whedon is involved in a major role having props or imagery used that seemingly refer to an important person/place/thing from a 3rd Whedon property (i.e. Dr. Horrible's pots & pans or the iridium sample looking like Serenity)? I am willing to have at least some middling level of belief that the designs were intentional by the set designers or prop makers.

Yet I don't see how there's any wiggle room for "belief" on the Dr. Horrible/"Serenity pots-and-pans assemblage" when the owner of the Lair specifically debunks it. (That was just one of the threads where it was discussed ad nauseum.) He was present at & involved with the shoot, and would've known if the pots had been re-arranged to look like the Serenity. He confirms it here on his blog.

And as I've linked above, a shot of another angle of the hanging cookware makes it clear they're just Random Hanging Pots (and not a Cigar.)

Not really open to interpretation or this kind of speculation any more, unless you think the owner of the Lair is mistaken or misleading.

Something completely oxymoronic like Disney animators making a dust cloud during an animal stampede in The Lion King spell out "SEX"? Takes a lot more work to sell me on the concept, even if turns out to be true :D
BlueEyedBrigadier | June 10, 23:48 CET

Lion King spells out "SFX", put there by the special effects people (you know, what SFX means). It got spread that it said sex, but that's been debunked and there is clearly no bottom to the 'F'. (Now, the phallic image in the tower of Little Mermaid...that was a real hidden thing...)

@QuoterGal: I was merely pointing out that I personally am willing to believe that something like the pots and pans in the Lair's kitchen or the picture of the iridium sample could be Easter eggs based on the odds being somewhere in the neighbourhood of feasible but still kinda unlikely compared to other urban legends or stories of hidden references. Yeah, the pots were a dead-end or sheer dumb luck the camera was aimed a certain way. Dunno about the rock sample until one of the VFX guys get grilled and they say something to support or debunk it :P

I feel that you guys are attacking my belief system with your insistence on using terms like 'facts' to disprove my articles of faith in the prevalence of Serenity popping up in ALL of Joss (my one true god) Whedon's work!

It's worth a read or re-read , as the case may be, right through to the end, if you've got a bit of time. It made me nostalgic for Threads Like Those, and raise a glass for Absent Friends Sorely Missed.